During our childhood, there was nothing like "Organic foods". Actually, at that time, everything was organic. I still remember the small fights in my home between my parents, where my mother demands my father to bring good and fresh vegetables, as she sees a worm coming fresh out of a cut piece of eggplant. Nowadays, the story has reversed. We want a worm or a bacteria to come out (if we can see the bacteria...) of a cut piece of eggplant or apple so as to certify that as the highest grade of "organic vegetable/fruits". But, it is in vain, to wait for that fresh worm to come out of current generation eggplants or apples as those worms can't survive the best pesticides or genetic modifications. Couple of years ago, a friend of mine packed an apple by mistake into one of the boxes as part of moving from an apartment to a new house. The contents of that box was not important, and he opened it only after 6 months... Even after 6 months, the apple he packed by mistake was as fresh as it was bought from the store. Imagine eating that kind of apples and how much damage it could create to our digestive systems and body.
The food that we eat is one of the reasons for obesity, diabetes, cancer and many other diseases. Pesticides, genetic modifications, fastened ripening methods, injecting chemicals to maintain freshness, growth hormone injections etc. are converting the fruits, vegetables and meat into a mass of poison.
You have to eat something to survive. But, why to eat so much poison? The lesser we eat, the better it is for our health.
Now, jokes apart... that's what Adi Shankaracharya wrote long ago. Towards the end of Shankara's life, his disciples requested him to write a text summarizing his approach to spiritual life. Combining all his experience, Shankaracharya wrote a poem of 5 verses, each one dealing with spiritual practices. Each verse contains 8 instructions, which makes into a total of 40 instructions. The same verses are known by different names - upadesha panchakam (since it is a set of 5 precious gems of advice or teaching. Panchakam means 5 verses), sadhana panchakam ( since it deals with a series of disciplines or sadhanas to be followed), sopana panchakam (since the teachings are given as a series of steps or the stairs of a ladder, sopana means stairs), advaita pachakam (the verses deal with advaitic teacing contained in the Vedas). The 40 instructions are spread across the 4 Asramas of life (Brahmcharya Asrama, Grihastha Asrama, Vanaprastha Asrama, Sanyasa Asrama). Nowadays, even though majority of the people do not physically follow the Asrama way of life, without realizing everyone mentally goes through these 4 stages.
4 out of 40 instructions talks about food. 2 of those food instructions combined together in a simplified form as follows..
"Consider hunger as a disease and food as the medicine"
Most of us eat a lot, either since the food is delicious or we are very hungry. Another instruction (of the 4 food instructions) talks about "not seeking delicious food". But, that instruction to resist "delicious food", may be a very difficult one to practice. But, any time when you eat, consciously thinking "my hunger is a disease" and "I am taking food medicine to cure my hunger disease", may help you to eat less (Nobody wants to eat/drink medicines unnecessarily, right?). It may not happen in a day or two. But, practicing that thought every time we eat will help us to eat less in the long run.
With so many lifestyle diseases around us, where "food" is a major part of lifestyle, with so many food prepared/created around us using many unhealthy substances, it is worth eating less to make our health and life better.
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